Pacemaker Fishing Forum

John N and I got blown out on a trip a few weeks ago so our rebook was a float with CT Campbell on the Shenandoah. I arrived early and met CT for the first time and immediately knew this would be a great trip. He’s a super nice guy and just plain fun to be around.

We put in around 8:45 and before I even got the right fly tied on, John hooked up and landed a nice smallmouth. It all happened so quick I never even got a pic. We started floating downstream and within 10 minutes or so i hooked and landed my 1st.



We would have a slow but steady pick of fish for the first hour and a half or so. We moved a LOT of fish that were chasing but not always eating. Many of them were juveniles like this one.



We came into a deeper run and CT said it would be a good place to throw a tube since the flies might not get down deep enough. He was right. This was one of only 2 fish that I caught on spinning gear all day.



The bites started to build in the hour before lunch and we had a nice pick of fish up to about 14+ inches. This fish put up an amazing fight on the 6 wt in the current.



We then stopped on a small island for lunch, ate some great Italian subs that John brought and shared fishing stories. Between 3 guys that have had many years on the water, there was no shortage of great fishing talk.



After lunch the bite slowed up a bit but John did manage to catch “Rock Bass Ernie’s” favorite fish.



I managed one more quality fish before the end of the float.



By the end of the day we landed 30+ fish, had amazing weather, great lunch, great conversation and a lot of laughs as well. Oh and the view wasn’t bad as as well. Thanks John.